Proteins are one of many types of natural polymers, and they are the most

versatile by far. You name it, proteins do it.

What can proteins do? What can't they do!

 Enzymes are proteins that make sure that chemical reactions in your body
take place up to a million times faster than they would without enzymes.
 Antibodies are proteins that help your immune system to fight disease.
 When you get a boo boo, the bleeding stops because of blood clots,
thanks to the proteins fibrinogen and thrombin.
 Transport! Some proteins carry stuff from one place to another, or form
tunnels (pores) in cell membranes that will let only specific molecules (or
ions) through. Hemoglobin, a protein in your blood, carries oxygen from
your lungs to your cells.
 Strength and support! Other proteins like collagen and keratin are strong
and tough and make up your skin, hair, and fingernails. Collagen also
supports your cells and organs so they don't slosh around.
 Motion! The proteins myosin and actin make up much of your muscle
tissue. They work together so your muscles can move you around. Some
bacteria have cilia and flagella made out of proteins. The bacteria can
whip these around to move from place to place.

Yes! You are made out of protein!

So, what are proteins?

Proteins are polymers made out of amino acids. They're naturally occurring,
meaning they're made by animals, plants, bugs, fungi, and other living things -
and that includes you!

A protein is actually a polyamide (a what?), but more about that later.

So, proteins are polymers of amino acids. What's an amino acid? (Glad you
asked!!)
Amino acids have an amino end and an acid end. In the middle is a C (carbon)
with an H (hydrogen) and a side group shown here as an R. (Think of R as
the Rest of the molecule.)

That R group can be as little as an H or kinda big. There are twenty common
amino acids in your body. Want to see 'em? Click here. Each one has a
different R group.

For each protein that's made, the order of the R groups is VERY important
because it determines the shape of the protein and the job it will do. To get the
right order, cells use RNA that's copied from your DNA. The whole story is
pretty complicated, and involves special enzymes and even different kinds of
RNA. We won't go into it now - just trust that there's a whole system in place
to make sure the right amino acids get put together in the right order.

So, how does your body make a protein?

1
First, hold 2 amino
acids next to each
other like this:
2
Take out the -OH and -
H circled in red, and
form a new bond.
The -OH and the -H
together make a
molecule of water -
H2O.

3
Bring in the next amino
acid!

4
Again, remove H2O and
form a new bond.

5 and
up!
Keep adding amino
acids and taking out
water until the protein
is done!

Want to know something else? Proteins also make up silk. Silk is such nifty stuff
that scientists tried to make synthetic silk. They tried to make
synthetic polyamides, and what do you know, they did it! The artificial
polyamides are called nylons.

O.k., earlier we said that a protein is a naturally occurring polyamide, and that
we'd get to that later. Hey, guess what?! It's later!

A polyamide is a polymer (of course!) that has amide groups in the

backbone chain.
Here are two ways of looking at an amide group:

Remember what our little baby protein looked like? Every time we added an
amino acid, we made an amide group! See the amide groups in blue?

Now, we said that a protein is a polyamide. Any old polyamide would look like
this, and the R groups don't have to look like the middle of an amino acid. It
could just be a chain of six -CH2- units, or it could get more complicated.
 Two Examples of Polyamides

Notice something weird about those two examples? They're both general
examples of polyamides, but their repeat units would be different (so they'd
have to be made using different methods and different monomers, even if the R
groups were the same.) Want to learn more about polyamides and nylons? Click
here!